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Application Notes: Monitoring of the muscle recovery of a top ranking athlete

The case: a top ranking elite football player was re-injured during the national championship game in one of the top European leagues. Re-injury occurred 2 weeks after the initial injury. The player was immediately pulled from the game and a diagnosis was made: Grade I muscle injury on the myotendinous junction of the long head of the left biceps femoris associated with an interfascial hematoma between the long and short heads of the biceps femoris. The situation was even more critical as the re-injury happened in April, at the end of National and European league and before National Championships.

TMG measurement was utilized three times during the therapy to monitor therapy effectiveness as well as to provide the feedback information to optimize it. For the analysis, the measurements of both left (injured) and right biceps femoris muscles were taken 4, 10 and 16 days after the injury. On day 4 TMG measurements alone confirmed the clinical evaluation and ultrasound diagnostics, while on day 10, when the clinical evaluation and ultrasound diagnostics were negative, they showed a 27% asymmetry which could lead to re-injury. Based on TMG findings the club kept the player off the field and prescribed targeted activation exercises for the injured muscle. The player returned to field on day 16 when TMG measurements showed that the asymmetry was reduced to 12%.
As a result of TMG measurements that demonstrated the need for targeted activation exercises the player was able to participate in a National championship game without re-injury.